Tech 911Do you have a technical question last night? We would love to answer it! Email [email protected] with "Tech 911" in the subject line.Broadband Internet costs less unless you're blessed to live in a good fiber service at a low price of $ 100. (If so, do you need a roommate?)
I live in Silicon Valley, which means I'm affiliated with Comcast and have to earn over $ 100 / mo to enjoy a limited service with 1TB of full download – $ 150 / mo, if I want to pay Comcast for another privilege data as I want. These types of funds are enough to make anyone want to find a way to create cost, and for a Lifehacker student Fitz suggested one fun idea in a recent email:
Is there a way my neighbor can share standard Broadband. Will it work if I take an ethernet cable from his router and connect it to my WAN port port? Also, will I need a modem router if my neighbor's router already has one?
Technically, that plan it is possible work. Make sure you take the time to enable your router entry mode mode (or otherwise disabled by DHCP and its firewall), and your devices will get their IP addresses from your neighbor's router – otherwise they would if you connected your cable modem to your router directly, if set up as a standard router. And, no, you don't need a cable module with a built-in router.
However, this larger plan to share your neighbor's internet service has a few hitches. First of all, you'll want to make sure you get a high quality Ethernet cable that is rated to give you the highest speed at any distance you need to cover between your neighbor's house and your own. (I think this is a door-to-door plan, not a door-to-door contract.) That would probably be a Cat 6 cable, at least, that would set you back about $ 50 per 100 feet of cable.
Cat 6 spec maxes out at 328 feet of gigabit speed; however and you risk operating tasks — even if the connection doesn't work at all. So if you and your neighbor have plenty of room to study, you may want to invest a wireless bridge with great potential setup instead (undoubtedly more expensive).
Even if you go the Ethernet route, which I recommend, I hope you find a novel way to wrap a cord between your two houses so that it is not cut, charged, or otherwise attacked. And, of course, if this cord ever fails, you'll have to put it back inside your house – which can be a pain in the ass. I prefer to use cables over a wireless connection whenever possible, but this may be one example where the latter, if strong enough, is appropriate.
Now, assuming you have set up a physical connection, there are two More issues that you may want to consider. The first is safety. Do you trust your neighbor? You trust your neighbor not to install some sort of mid-range setup or packet spray on the network they control and use that to hack your passwords, sign in to what you are doing, and cause other conflicts in your digital life? I suspect this will be a problem most conditions, but a general rule to keep in mind is that using your neighbor's communication does you user on theirs network, and there's a lot they can do to ruin your day – or something as simple as hitting with bandwidth controls or uninstalling any connected devices that aren't their own. I run all my traffic through a VPN in this situation, but that can affect your speed and be annoying to deal with.
Secondly, there is that bandwidth cap issue I left before. If you are on Comcast, or using any other provider that offers you a monthly service, you will need to investigate if you can remove that (by increasing your service level or by paying a monthly fee). Otherwise, you and your neighbor will have to view your web traffic like watches, because now two families will be sharing the data limit that is usually built for one. And neither of you want to be surprised by the big bill because the other one downloads the most every month.
Speaking of which, what happens when your neighbor's kid decides to go wild and BitTorrent is all they can get without using a VPN to hide their work? Are you and your neighbors both willing to risk (and accept) that any of you in your shared connection can have an impact on, or compromise, the experience of both houses? Is your neighbor willing to accept a renewal of anything you do online that is already linked to his or her account?
Alternatively, what if there is a problem with the internet while your neighbor is away for a day – or a weekend, or a month-long vacation? Will they give you permission to enter your house and reset the router or cable modem? Is it also possible to add you to an account as an "authorized" user, if you need to communicate directly with an ISP for work?
And what happens if your neighbor doesn't stay on top of the app or firmware updates? What if some kind of malware at the end of things uses your shared network to hijack your data or otherwise cause chaos in your systems?
This whole idea – while saving money – may also violate your ISP terms of service. You might get away with it, but I also don't want to think about what happens when, or when, they receive a service theft (or how they define it).
I'm not I don't know do this, because I am ready to stick it to a man, especially if most internet providers these days want to save you and give you away as much as possible. However, there are serious concerns that come with sharing an Internet service with your neighbor. Think about them before you proceed with the process. (Please let me know how things work when you try!)
Do you have a technical question last night? Tired of troubleshooting your Windows or Mac? Looking for tips on apps, browser extensions, or resources to accomplish a specific task? Let us know! Tell us in the comments below or email us [email protected].
